This invention relates generally to user interfaces, and more particularly to the dynamic generation of user interfaces.
Front office solutions increasingly include industry-specific functionality, enabling organizations to deploy applications tailored to the requirements of the industry. Modern front office solutions can empower sales, marketing, and customer service professionals with comprehensive information about customers, products, competitors, and markets. Companies that deploy these systems can develop and maintain a long-term competitive advantage through dramatic long-term improvements in sales productivity and customer satisfaction. These benefits provide a substantial positive economic value to the corporation. Companies that implement modern front office solutions view them not only as yielding positive net present value but also as an essential requirement for the survival of their enterprise.
In this environment, company-specific functionality is also critical to the success of the front office solutions. Company-specific functionality is often expressed in the defined business process (e.g., applying for a loan, requesting a quote, etc.). These business processes change frequently as a company adapts its workflows to conform to the “best practices” that have been defined. Adaptation of a company's business processes typically result in the modification of various user interface elements. Conventionally, these user-interface modifications require a recompilation and redeployment of the computer logic that governs the user interface elements. This recompilation and redeployment process is costly in both time and resources. What is needed therefore is a solution that can flexibly adapt to a customer's needs.